Happy New Year!

Added 03 January 2015 by Peter

Well, what a busy old time it's been at STYH-HQ over the last... three years or so?

For the unannointed, Straight To Your Head is the online music show that does... well, what thousands of other podcasts also do: If you want to hear music from great underdogs (a cliche I hate, but there's no better term), this is one of the 1,354,584 podcasts for you.

Frankly, with that much choice out here on the worldwide superweb of the highway information net, it's a miracle that you found it. But you did, and we thank the roll out of superfast fibre broadband and its bastard cousin, 4G for that.

Ok, STYH hasn't taken over the world in the way that I would like it to have done, but at least the show is hanging on to the coat tails of the wonderful domineering force of iTunes (despite iTunes 11 sucking SO BADLY - Steve Jobs would NOT have approved, but anyway...). Rock, pop, folk, country, EDM, metal, lo-fi and hi-fi, it's all been on STYH. Dream-pop to doom-rock has all featured in around 60 podcasts, plus a load of special features and compilations - aka, indulgence, which are the beamed straight to your head via Apple's unstoppable force - and here too, at STYHpodcast.com, the place we call home.

The podcast has listeners who come and go, and a hardcore loyal following - all who have one thing in common; all who share the dream of seeing talented musicians being able to forge a self-sustaining career in music. And if that goes beyond self-sustaining and morphs into seven homes around the world, each with ten swimming pools and palm trees, then great (...but don't forget the indie podcasters, eh? We all welcome the prospect of using the spare room at the mansion for a mini-break, squeezed in an inflatable bed between all those music awards).

I'm veering well off-topic here.

Point is, we saw out 2014 with a compilation podcast of 25 great songs as featured throughout the year. Some from old friends, some from new friends, all great, melodic tracks. This will continue into 2015 and beyond.

It has to. I have no choice. My web space hosting company just renewed my deal for another two years, took the cash from my offshore account and then informed me afterwards.

I would have renewed it anyway of course, because STYH has not only presented you with new music, but it has given me some new, personal favourite artists. Let's be honest, shows that turn the nation into zombies like X Factor are great for singers, but terrible for those who want to actually create music from scratch. Laying down a vocal after some hotshot producer does all the music isn't creative. I have no interest in any of that. Good luck to them, but this is my little revolution - part of a much bigger revolution by thousands of podcasters to see justice served to the world's real creators of music. Music that you won't be embarrassed to own in a year from now. Music that truly matters.

Highlights in The Best of 2014 podcast include: Ernie Jackson, British pop-rock with an LA twist; The Courtesans, very likely to be the UK's only all-girl group to dare to do what they do; As The City Rumbles Underneath, Ashton & Cat laying down Canada's best pop - surely; Raglans, the masters of the catchy chorus and verse combo that made the charts in the 90's so brilliant; Picturehouse, with songwriting sensibilities matched only by the great Neil Finn; Roenik, who fill me with joy thanks to their echoes of A-ha (one of the greatest acts of the last 30 years IMO); Scary Cherry and the Bang Bangs, proving that punk is still a true force to be reckoned with; Culann, the greatest band in Scotland at the moment - with a debut album well-worth checking out; The Feud, the UK's greatest electro-rock powerhouse - the heir-apparent to Muse's throne; and Sahara Starr, the USA's country girl who won't be pidgeonholed and promises to surprise with her direction.

Please keep downloading the shows, even if you have never heard of any of the artists. The word needs spreading, so spread it. Spread it thickly, and evenly. Check out other podcasts that have a similar mission, and declare in one voice, we will not go quietly into the night! We're going to live on! We're going to survive!